Never be afraid to ask! The $7k Question - Posted by JohnAz
Posted by JohnAz on July 11, 1999 at 08:58:20:
Hi,
I’m probably the LAST person in the world that should give negotiating advice, but I hope sharing this will help someone else someday.
I have a house sitting empty that I was planning on finishing up some work on and getting it on the market next month. I was contacted Thursday by a realtor who claimed to have a very interested pre-qualified buyer. In initial conversation with the realtor of course he had to try to pin me down on a price. Ok, we’ve all heard you should let the other person mention a price first. Well due to the fact the house has been sitting empty, with overgrown grass, no carpeting, etc. I was afraid to let him come up with a price first. I figured that he’d low ball me and then I’d play heck trying to get the price up to what I wanted. So I went ahead and told him I was looking at getting 65k for the house.
It’s a 75k home, but it was built in a 45k neihborhood. I’ve always thought I’d be hard pressed to get a 65k offer on this thing no matter how nice it looked. He didn’t balk or question the price so we set up an appointment to let his buyers see the house. After looking thru the house the realtor said he’d give me a call to discuss it further. He called yesterday afternoon and said the buyers were seriously interested, and he wanted to discuss costs, commision, etc.
The first thing he wanted to know was if the $65k was my asking price or if that is what I wanted to clear. I’m not a fast thinker, this stuff doesn’t come second nature to me. It took me a moment of pause to think about my answer. I actually asked myself “how would the pro’s on Creonline answer this?” Then I told the realtor “well, of course, that’s what I expect to clear!” He said he had to refigure the numbers and he’d call me back.
An hour later we’re back on the phone. He starts giving me the cost breakdown, appraisal, inspections, commision, title fee’s, etc. Then he says the only way he can get me the 65k clear is if he raises the asking price to 72,370.
He mentions that the buyers a pre-qualified for 79k, and he’s certain he can get an appraisal to come in at the 72k price!!
As simple as it seems for some, if it hadn’t been for this site, the little tidbits I read daily from all the fine people using this site, I would have never thought of asking for more. I realize this is NOT a done deal at this point. I won’t count on anything until I’m walking out of the closing with a check in my hand. For now this is only a lesson well learned.
Thanks to all on this site, especially JP and Terry for providing this forum for all of us to share!!
JohnAz